Get Out!

So, this movie “Get Out” is receiving all sorts of critical acclaim in addition to doing about $150 million (to date) domestically on a $4.6 million budget. That’s crazy right? No, it’s not, and I’ll tell you why.

I could honestly spend the whole day writing about all the problems I have with Hollywood from racism to the feminization (yup, made that word up) of men, but I’m going to stay on topic here. The theme of this post is ‘CREATIVITY’.

I’ve been talking to a friend of mine for years about how deep the void of creativity in Hollywood has gotten since we hit the year 2000. I can’t recall when it started exactly, but somewhere in the early 2000’s studios started being so scared to green light films based on original screenplays, that we started getting hit with all of these books and television shows turned movies.

Next thing you know the superhero movies took over and then the reboots. Excuse me, crappy ass reboots. If you think I’m exaggerating there’s actually a “Chips” movie in theaters right now. Did I see it? No. How much would I bet that its horrible? My life. Why so confident? I understand Hollywood.

Hollywood Land

The decision makers in studios are lazy, uninspired and greedy. They don’t give a damn about product anymore. They just want your money. So, if they can find a way to re-package something from your childhood or a book you loved reading, they will not hesitate to call the merchandising companies and set-up orders before the script is even penned. Let’s go back to my buddy now.

I told him about a year ago that sooner or later people are going to get sick of super hero movies, reboots and television re-hashes and then Hollywood will be forced to change their ways. He laughed and told me that will never happen. Do I think that time is now? No. Is there a window of opportunity? Yes.

Unfortunately it will only take the next piece of crap Transformers movie or something like it to do $400 million and studio execs will forget that Jordan Peele has become the first African-American writer-director to earn $100-million on their debut film. Or that it earned an almost perfect score on Rotten tomatoes. I hope I’m wrong, because there is a lot of potential out there and it’s being purposefully overlooked.

There are a large number of screenwriters and novelist out there with great, compelling stories to tell, but with the way things are run most of them either give up before the world gets a chance to see their words beautifully transferred on-screen or worse, they get dumped in a bottomless pit of wasted talent.

So, I say “GET OUT” to the lazy, money hungry studio execs who keep pushing this garbage and I hope we get at least a good decade of classic movies again before I kick the bucket. To you writers out there reading this; KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.